James Merritt, Jr. (Atlanta, GA) (Premises Liability) won a hotly-contested Motion for Summary Judgment in favor of Defendant Staples, Inc., after oral argument before Judge Hermann Coolidge in the State Court of Chatham County.
The Plaintiff filed a personal injury action against Staples, asserting a claim for premises liability negligence, after she tripped and fell while shopping in a Staples retail store. The Plaintiff claimed that the subject pallet was a hazardous condition of which Staples had a duty to warn its invitees. Photographs taken from multiple angles shortly after the subject incident showed that the pallet was sitting in the middle of the Staples store’s sales floor and had numerous large cardboard boxes stacked high on top of it. In defense of the Plaintiff’s claims, we argued that the subject pallet was not a hazard condition at all, and to the extent it was, it was an open and obvious static condition which was in plain view of the Plaintiff and could have (and should have) been avoided if the Plaintiff had exercised ordinary care. The Court agreed. Further, the Court also found persuasive the argument and supporting case law that customers of “big box” stores such as Staples know that these types of pallets and boxes containing merchandise being placed on the sales floor is a normal occurrence. The Court granted Staples judgment as a matter of law on all counts in the Plaintiff’s Complaint.
The case is Crystal Flagg v. Staples, Inc., Civil Action File No.: STCV19-01076.